• Nearly 80% of Australians have a social media account
• 33% of customers say they hit up social media to find out more about a brand
• In a US study, 62% of people trust traditional media and only 33% trust online ads

In thirty years, our spending and media consumption habits have changed dramatically. Since the advent of online stores more and more people are buying online. This change in spending is largely due to social media marketing. 

Our feeds are full of targeted ads wanting to attract customers. However, the reason why the adoption has been so seamless is because we are used to advertising when consuming traditional media such as free to air TV, newspapers and even billboards. 

Seeing as consumers' spending habits have changed so much it's worth looking at the pros and cons of social media marketing and traditional media to see what is right for your business. 

Social media marketing isn’t going anywhere any time soon. It’s easy to use and has an enormous audience.  With all of this going for it, it's worth diving deeper and looking at the pros and cons of social media advertising  as well as the pros and cons of traditional media. 

Source: Unsplash

What are the pros and cons of social media advertising?

We will start with the cons of social media advertising. 

Cons

1. It is time consuming

Social media advertising is time consuming on two fronts. 

 It requires community management in many cases, to respond to consumer enquiries and feedback. If you don’t invest in this aspect, it may be your downfall. Many customers view social media as the new customer service portal to voice their discontent with an interaction they've had with your company. 

When customers see an interaction from the company on their social media they are reassured that their concerns will be listened to. You can also use community management to persuade undecided buyers. 

The second aspect of social media advertising is the need for consistency with advertising. It’s not something you can do and get fantastic results straight away. It requires day in day out strategy on organic and paid promotions. When you establish your voice as a consistent presence, that's when your promotions pay off. 

2. There's a risk of negative publicity that can go out of control quickly. 

This is following on from the first point but it does warrant its own attention. The online world of social media is WILD. You need to make sure that your customers are given a great product with great service. People work hard for their money and when they feel they are being duped they turn to social media. 

This can turn ugly, fast. The negative comments can be shared and in the worst case scenario you can go viral for a bad product. All of this can happen in the space of a day sometimes. 

The obvious way to mitigate this is to ensure your customers receive a quality product or service and make them feel listened to by customer service or your community management team. 

Also some social media campaigns have used popular vernacular in innopropriate ways. Humour is great and fine to do everyonce in a while but steer clear of anything that may cause offence.

3. Takes longer to get ROI 

As consistency is the name of the game it takes longer to get out what you put in. But when you do invest the time as well as money the payoff is potentially huge. Many brands have worldwide customers thanks to the efforts they have put into their social and web presence.

4. Brand voice can be diluted by your social media manager

It needs to be said that your brand manager needs to be hired with extreme caution. You must make sure that your brand's voice isn't changed by your social media manager. A way to mitigate this is to establish brand guidelines and tone of voice. 

Also take the time to educate and have one on one sessions with your brand managers and social media managers. When the team is all on one page, the brand voice is at its strongest.

5. Mental health is a concern for employees who manage your accounts

If you have decided to hire a social media manager, check in with them periodically and see how they are doing. While it’s a vital role, online trolls can leave social media managers feeling dispirited and angry. 

I say this as a former social media manager who chose a different path due to the consistent online abuse that I witnessed daily. It’s not that people shouldn't say what they think but many people forget that there is a human being on the other side of the computer. 

6. Fraud is a concern for companies

In recent years there have been many accounts popping up that look identical to the official social media account. This is a major concern for all companies and has resulted in a few strategies such as verified accounts on social media accounts. 

Your brand managers and social media managers need to be vigilant and check every once in a while for groups or pages that have the same name as you. And if you are alerted to a scam, mention on your page that the other account is an imposter and you are in no way affiliated with the fake account. 

While social media has its shortcomings there are HUGE gains to be made by deploying a consistent approach.
Let's explore the positives of social media management. 

Pros

1. Huge audience

It’s very hard to beat social media’s reach and audience options. All from the comfort of your own chair you can reach more people than ever before. It’s estimated that in 2020, 79% of Australians have at least 1 social media account. And in the US it's even higher with 95% of Americans owning at least 1 social media account. 

In terms of audience it has never been easier to buy a large audience. 

2. It is easy to use

Social media advertising is quite easy to use on purpose. The popular platforms want more users after all. If they make it too hard or complex it's not going to be used. It’s also quite quick to knock together a campaign and watch it perform.

3. Increased targeting

The granularity social media offers is unparalleled. Because we follow pages that are our interests as well as what we do and where we live, it provides fantastic targeting options. If you have fitness equipment for example you can target your chosen genders, interests and age. 

4. It is instant, not usually any lag

Once you click to run your social media campaign, it’s out there. There are no other lags, no other means of distribution needed. The advantage of this is that if your campaign needs to be tweaked it can be done instantly. Such is the wonder of social media advertising.  

5. Customers feel they can interact with the brand before buying

As mentioned previously many customers take to social media to ask questions about the product that they are interested in buying. Good social media management will help turn undecided buyers into customers due to the instant reassurance you have provided. 

In these times where seeing a physical object in a store is not really an option right now, social media advertising is the next best thing. 

Now that we have outlined the pros and cons of social media advertising lets outline the upsides and downsides of traditional media. For the purpose of this article traditional media will be newspapers, flyers, TV and billboards. 

Source: Pexels

What are the pros and cons of traditional media?

Let's explore the cons of traditional media first. 

Cons

1. More expensive to run ads

Yes, it’s true print advertising is more expensive than digital media. Newspaper ads, free to air TV ads  and billboards are the most expensive options in print media. According to LogicSofts.com a newspaper ad can cost from $600 a day to $3500 for a full page newspaper ad. 

However, it must be said that there are less expensive options in print media. There is an option for every budget. 

If you have a small marketing budget but lots of foot traffic, an A-frame sign is a smart investment with little to no ongoing costs. Flyers that are dropped into local mailboxes is also a great way to increase brand recognition without a huge overlay.  

2. No way to amend a print error after it has been printed

We are all human and sometimes we can’t see our own mistakes. And if you print an ad or a flyer with the wrong email or phone number, that's a waste of time and money. 

Always get someone to proofread your ads before printing and double check the contact details before printing. 

3. Declining Audiences

One of the downsides of print media is the declining audiences who are switching to streaming services and digital sources for news media. Digital newspapers are still popular but many people are off put by buying a subscription. 

4. More hidden costs

So when you think of print media do you only think of the printing costs? Many forms of print media ie. flyers and catalogues have other fees attached. Distribution costs for one thing are an added cost. 

If you are mailing promotions the stationary and stamps will be an add on cost. To avoid going over budget, think about every step your print campaign will need to go through to be in your customers hands. And factor price accordingly. 

5. Can be hard to track ROI

 When you engage a print media campaign it can be hard to track the effectiveness and ROI. Make sure you make a note of when your print media campaign started and track the sales figures for that period and two to four weeks after. 

It must be said an advantage to digital is it’s ease of tracking effectiveness and reach. 

Now let's explore the positives of print media!

Pros

1. Higher consumer trust

Print media has far more consumer trust than digital. In recent surveys, 60% of people found print media to be more trustworthy and easier to make purchase decisions with print media. Only 30% of users said they felt digital was trustworthy. 

It is worth considering investing in some print media in your campaign for the trust factor alone. 

2. Takes less cognitive effort to read print media

Print media takes 21% less cognitive effort to read than digital media. That 21% can be devoted to deciding to buy rather than reading the article. 

Print has been around for a lot longer than digital which is probably why it's easier to read. Digital interfaces can also be intentionally distracting so it’s unlikely that the ad you are viewing will be the only ad on the screen. 

3. Can market solely to your chosen demographic

Print advertising can have some amazing options for demographic targeting as well. Print and digital magazines in particular are great for this. There are magazines for just about everything these days. And you also can be a bit more specific in your ad for the demographic you are targeting as well, as you can assume more knowledge. 

4. Can keep print media to remind yourself of deals or services

The great thing about print media is that you can hold on to it for as long as you want. If you aren’t certain about your purchase you can keep it and think about it. Digital media is hard to access offline so this aspect has digital media beat. 

Should I still use traditional media for my small business?

Print media is a great companion to a digital campaign. Not to mention if you have special deals on printed flyers or coupons for online purchase you can track just how effective they are through your digital marketing. 

Digital media is the primary mode of advertising in this day and age. And rightly so, it's easy to use, cheaper and has a greater reach. Print can help with establishing a longer lasting brand recall than digital which makes it a powerful addition to your marketing arsenal. 

Source: Shutterstock

The Verdict

If you are a new company just starting out a primarily digital focused campaign would be a great start. This is also a good idea as many people cannot get out and about to receive print advertising. 

As things start to reopen you can think about printing some brochures or pamphlets to give to customers or to pop into their online orders so they can keep your company in mind for their next purchase. 

If you offer a discount code for their next purchase, on a printed brochure your customer will be more likely to keep it and remember you.

As you can see social media advertising and print media advertising can coexist and one doesn't mean the death of the other.  

Finally all advantages and disadvantages of both mediums are a double edged sword. The permanence of print media can also be its downfall if human error occurs and the massive reach of social media audiences can work against you with negative publicity. Both options need to be given care, consideration and effort. 

If you are wondering about how to go about starting a multi medium campaign… Here's what you need to do.

 1.  It’s best to work out what your core demographic is and what your budget is. It’s also a great idea to work out if you want to do a local geolocated campaign or a demographic based campaign. 

2. Once you've worked this out it would be best to look into your advertising options in both print and digital forms. An advertising service provider can help if you are stuck.  If you aren’t sure about the graphics and copy, it’s best to hire a professional such as a graphic designer help you as you will achieve what you want much quicker.

3. Once you’ve done this you can call several printing companies and get some quotes or upload your campaign to the platform. Make sure you factor in every cost that will require you to get the product into your customers hands. 

4. Enjoy your new sales and leads!